Brave Police J-Decker: Reassurance
by FreckleShy
Summary: After one of the Brave Polices' failures in a rescue mission, Yuuta begins to have nightmares and doubts about himself.


"S-Save.. me." An arm, flesh dripping from it like the wax of a candle, reached itself towards Yuuta. The face of its owner was distorted, melting away in the same manner as a desperate plea for help escaped its lips.

"A-AHHHHHGH" Yuuta bolted up from his bed and clutched at his chest, heart hammering inside along with his frantic breathing. The room slowed its spinning and returned to normal as the young inspector attempted to ground himself back in reality.

Yuuta couldn't remember how many times he had relived the same awful nightmare this week. He did, however, remember it more and more vividly each time.

A woman was reaching out to him, begging to be saved as patches of flesh melted away from her body, exposing bare bones underneath.

Yuuta squeezed his eyes shut and pulled his knees up, hugging them to his chest. He had promised himself that he'd be brave. These are just dreams, there's nothing to be afraid of! He remembered previously trying to console himself. In the moment, however, Yuuta was trembling, struggling to hold back the flood of tears threatening to surge from his eyes.

"Yuuta!?" A familiar call sounded from the other side of the bedroom's patio door. Its owner's voice held an impressive air of calm, while also expressing the desperate, visceral need to know Yuuta was alright.

The dam broke.

Yuuta burst into tears as he leaped from his bed, making a dash towards the patio. He threw open the double frosted-glass doors with a crash before all but throwing himself out over the balcony and into the awaiting hands of Deckerd, his robotic companion.

Deckerd stumbled backwards a bit in surprise, but otherwise received Yuuta with ease. After months of catching the boy from where he slid down and out of an all but vertical air vent, the robot swore there was no way he could ever fumble Yuuta, even in his most "fervent" (and more recent) attempts to catapult himself to safety.

Deckerd examined the boy from where he now clung, shaking and sobbing against the frame of his metal chest. The robot then scanned the house, checking for any unusual heat signatures. When he had affirmation that his human companion was not hurt or in any immediate danger, Deckerd circulated his vents in relief. "It's okay, Yuuta." He offered a gentle smile to the boy, although the small inspector's face was too far buried in the robot's chest plates to appreciate the gesture.

Deckerd cupped his hands around Yuuta and pressed him closer to his chest in the tightest form of a hug he could manage without applying pressure enough to hurt the boy. Being much larger than Yuuta made it a little difficult to offer physical comfort, but Deckerd hoped that his large build was, in the very least, enough to make his little friend feel safe. "Did you have another nightmare?" The robot inquired all too knowingly as he lowered himself to sit cross legged with Yuuta in the driveway.

Yuuta sniffled and nodded. He refused to remove his head from Deckerd's chest, so his affirmative motion was nothing more than his forehead squeaking up and down against the robot's armoured plating.

"Was it the same one?" Deckerd questioned again, gently. A muffled whisper of "yeah" was his response.

Deckerd's optical ridges pinched in sympathy. This was the third night this week that Yuuta had been awoken by nightmares of similar themes, ones that seemed to relate to one of their most recent assignments.

Deckerd gingerly stroked the back of Yuuta's head with an extended thumb as he recalled the events of last week's endeavour. What happened hadn't been anyone's fault, but the situation was more than enough to be scarring to a child.

A fire had broken out in an apartment complex on the other side of town and because of the distance the Brave Police had been late to the scene. Despite their arrival time, the human fire department already had most of the people evacuated, and it didn't take much longer to have nearly everyone out with the help of the colossal robots.

There was, however, a party of two that were unaccounted for.

It was a young mother and child. They had been trapped by the flames and were crying for help from the open window of one of the complex's uppermost floors. Deckerd, formerly transformed into J-Decker, had flown up to them with Yuuta in his hand. The purpose of having Yuuta with him was so that the mother and child would be less frightened, as even when faced with certain death, being offered help by a 20ft tall robot could still be considered startling to some.

The tragedy had all happened so devastatingly fast.

The child was passed over first, and sat safely in the palm of J-Decker's servo, however, just as Yuuta was reaching out to take the mother's hand, the weakened floor beneath her gave way to the rising flames.

Deckerd wasn't sure how far she fell, it wasn't something he even wanted to think about. All he knew was that she disappeared from before them, plunging into the roaring inferno below.

Reaching into the building in an attempt to retrieve the woman could have toppled the whole complex upon the survivors below with J-Decker's immense size, and there was no way Yuuta could have jumped in to save her without being killed himself. They had been helpless. All they could do was deliver her son to the awaiting ambulances below for immediate care.

A sweep/cleanup of the building after the flames were put out confirmed the woman as a casualty.

Her death was a tragedy, not only to her family, but to the child that was now left without her. Having a godparent nearby to take responsibility of the kid was a godsend, but it hardly made the loss less emotionally arduous.

The Brave Police certainly didn't take the casualty lightly themselves. New plans were put in motion for swifter mobilization, a meeting was called where ideas were discussed of how to make evacuation efforts more efficient. In their minds they had failed and they needed to ensure an incident like this never happened again.

Everyone handled the loss in their own ways, but the Brave Police member it seemed to affect the most was Yuuta. Despite being in charge he was the force's youngest, and subsequently, by far the most impressionable. Their mini-boss hardly showed it at work, but the team knew he was struggling with his emotions at home, especially in his sleep.

Yuuta had been right there when the woman fell. He had been mere inches from taking her hand, but it had all been too late. One could only imagine the turmoil this could set into the young inspector's head.

Deckerd was roused from his recollections by a tiny hand reaching up against his chest. He looked down to see Yuuta looking up at him meekly, wide blue eyes puffy from his tears. The utterly broken look on Yuuta's face shattered Deckerd's heart. The small inspector was, in all technicalities, an officer of the law, but that didn't negate the fact that he was still a mere 12 years of age.

Aware that Yuuta's crying had nearly subsided and he had the boy's attention, Deckerd took the chance to coax Yuuta into talking out his despondence. "What's on your mind, Yuuta?"

Deckerd was well aware of the things that were troubling his human companion, but he wanted to give Yuuta the chance to understand and reconcile with those feelings for himself.

Yuuta hiccuped, now trying his best to suppress his emotions. Attempting to find the words to respond, he lowered his gaze to his lap as he traced circles upon the cool metal of Deckerd's palm.

The robot watched Yuuta's nervous gestures with a gentle gaze. The boy had always been very emotional and was never all that good at explaining the things that upset him. It was best to be kind and patient, letting Yuuta speak when he felt he had gathered his thoughts to the best of his ability.

It look a few moments of the boy getting his breathing under control and Deckerd stroking his back in encouragement for him to respond. "It's that women," Yuuta finally choked, voice still wavering after his break down. "From last week.. shes the one reaching out to me in my nightmares."

Deckerd had already pieced this together for himself when Yuuta described his nightmares previously, but the robot simply gave a gentle hum of acknowledgement to let the boy know he understood.

"Do you think..?" Yuuta's hands clenched into a fist against Deckerd's palm as he continued to force out his words. "Do you think she hates me?"

Deckerd was a bit taken aback by the question. Yuuta had once again raised his head to look at the robot for guidance, but the mechanical being found himself at a loss for words. No answer seemed suitable with his lack of understanding. "Forgive me for answering a question with a question, Yuuta," Deckerd responded carefully, "but why would this women have feelings of resentment towards you?"

Yuuta shifted in Deckerd's palm as he searched his mind for the right words. "Even in my dreams when she's reaching out for my hand I'm not able to take it." He spoke slowly, but more clearly, testing each word as he tried to keep his voice level. "I-I get scared and I wake up and she's gone again.."

"Yuuta.." Deckerd began, realizing where his companion's thoughts were taking him. "It's not-" but Yuuta wasn't listening.

"If only I had been fast enough to grab her before it was too late. She would still be with her child, he wouldn't have to live without her.. and she wouldn't be haunting me like this." Yuuta fumbled over his words as emotion began to cloud his thoughts once more. "Deckerd, how could she not hate me? We were right there. It's my fault that she's de-"

Deckerd, unable to reach Yuuta through his emotional response, had gently taken the boy in one fist and brought him up to eye level. The flow of words coming from Yuuta's mouth ceased, and he met Deckerd's gaze, shocked out of his train of thought by being held in such a sudden and authoritative manner.

"Yuuta," Deckerd spoke firmly, making sure his mini-boss's eyes met his own. "What happened was NOT your fault."

Yuuta hung, stunned in Deckerd's gentle grip. The robot held the boy's gaze until he was sure he had heard him. "We did everything that we possibly could have once we arrived at the scene," Deckerd continued, slowly opening his fist as he spoke so that Yuuta could once again sit on his palm. "Saving that woman may have been a possibility had we been able to arrive sooner than we did, but the fact that the fire started on the other side of town was not in anyone's control."

Yuuta opened his mouth, perhaps in an attempt to protest Deckerd's logic, but only a soft squeak was emitted from his parted lips as tears threatened to drench his cheeks all over again.

In a motion of finality to his statement, Deckerd gently poked Yuuta in the stomach with a finger of his free hand to keep the boy's attention. "You can't blame yourself for what happened, Yuuta. It's not fair to you or anyone else on the team."

For the second time that night, the sound of a child's cries filled the night air. Liberated, the sobs carried a faint essence of relief behind their agony.

In that moment, truthfully, Deckerd wanted nothing more than to break down himself, to somehow wrap his entire body around Yuuta and protect him from the emotions tearing apart his tiny insides. He wanted to beg the boy for forgiveness for suddenly being so stern, but that wasn't what Yuuta needed right now. The young inspector needed the truth as much as he did reassurance.

Wordlessly, Deckerd gently leaned back against the carport of Yuuta's home, cradling the weeping form of his boss against his metal chest once more.

If the mother who perished in the fire that day could see the state Yuuta was in now, Deckerd was sure she would have held him in the same way.


End file.
